Vampire Hunting For Beginners
by exSurreal
Summary: (ON HOLD: No inspiration, sorry) Jen and her friend Laura find out about Night World, and decide to become vampire hunters. They have no idea what the hell they are doing. LJS Janet Evanovich style
1. Introduction

Title: Vampire Hunting For Beginners  
Author: Satan's Sidekick  
Email: satans_sidekick13@hotmail.com  
Rating: 15 for swearing  
Based on: NW  
Keywords: comedy  
Disclaimers: I don't own the Night World concept - that belongs to LJS, but  
I did make up the characters, so please don't take them!  
Summary: Jenny and her friend Laura have found out about the Night World,  
and decide to become vampire hunters. Unfortunately, they have no idea what  
the hell they are doing.  
Literary Influences: L.J.Smith (duh!), Janet Evanovich, Laurell K.  
Hamilton, Joss Whedon (as in Buffy and Angel)  
Author's Notes: Characters are loosely based on Janet Evanovich's Steph  
Plum series. It's set in Melbourne, Australia, in a little fictional suburb  
near the central city called Sullivan. It starts just after Huntress,  
before Black Dawn. 


	2. Part 1

One  
  
"I cannot believe that we're doing this," I muttered under my breath. "I cannot believe that I let you talk me into this. We're going to look so stupid if we get caught."  
  
"So we won't get caught," Laura said, her grin flashing identical sets of sparkling white teeth, post-braces. "Besides," she said, fingering her turtle-neck, "he'll be the one that looks stupid when we catch him with Janie the Slut Connell." And I realised that she was not only wearing a thick black turtle-neck, but also black jeans, boots, and a balaclava.  
  
"Aren't you hot?" I asked dumbly. I looked down at my own clothes. I was wearing a T-shirt and board shorts I was still sweltering.  
  
"Well, of course I'm hot, you idiot," she replied hotly. "But at least I'm not dressed in the ridiculous outfit that you're wearing."  
  
"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" I asked indignantly.  
  
She gave me a once over. "Well, nothing, if you plan on doing undercover work. But snooping? Everyone knows that you have to wear black if you want to snoop. Besides," she went on, "you can't do serious ass-kicking, in a Hawaiian shirt and bright orange board shorts."  
  
"Ass-kicking? I thought we were snooping."  
  
"Your indignant ass-kicking when you find your boyfriend with Janie, because you've come over to his house for a surprise visit." She gave a roll of her eyes that I interpreted to mean, 'Jeez, what are you? Thick?'  
  
I could already see sweat dripping down Laura's forehead, so instead of replying with a scathing comment that was sure to send her into a fit of tears, I gave her my glare of death that was sure to get her to back up a few steps.  
  
Laura frowned. "Why are you squinting like that? Do you have something in your eye?"  
  
Should've gone with the scathing remark.  
  
She peered around the corner of the wall. "It's three past nine. He should have been twenty-five minutes and forty seconds ago," she said, looking at her watch. It had been synchronised on New Years with the countdown to the fireworks.  
  
"Maybe he's not going to come. Maybe the police detained him on his way here. Maybe Janie stood him up. And you know what? I just realised that it's Tuesday, and I'm missing out on my Mum's potato salad and pasta bake. So I should probably be-"  
  
"Shh! I think I see his car. There's someone beside him...oh yeah, that's Janie alright."  
  
"What?!" I shoved Laura aside and peeked around the side of the house. All three of them were getting out of the car and - wait, three? "Holy shit, Amber Cartwright's there as well," I whispered to myself, as I saw a familiar red-head pass under the street light. Amber was a brief acquaintance, and I had never thought that she was Brad's type. Of course, I had never realised that Brad's type meant cheating on his girlfriend with two other girls.  
  
Laura scrambled on the ground until she was kneeling in the space under me. "Holy shit, that /is/ Amber Cartwright. And they're both clinging on to him like they're his bitches!" Laura watches far too many movies for it to be healthy, hence the watch synchronisation. Often she makes these obscure references that she expects everyone to understand.  
  
We held our breaths as all three of them passed metres away from us and went into the house.  
  
"I can't believe this," I said numbly. Brad, who had taken me the year 11 formal. Brad, who had looked into my eyes and said that he loved me. Well, ok, I made up the thing about him loving me, but he did look into my eyes and said that he /liked/ me. That counted for something didn't it? I should have known it was all a façade. I should have seen that our relationship was too perfect. Men were such bastards. I looked down at Laura helplessly, and a tear streaked down my face.  
  
Laura stood up, took hold of my shoulders, and shook me until I thought my brain was going to fall out. "What are you thinking, you idiot? You're not the one that's having a threesome! You should be angry, and indignant, and pissed off and, well, just really, really pissed off will do. I mean, who'd leave you for those sluts?" Laura said vehemently. "If it wasn't illegal, I'd go in there and chop his testicles off - I'd make one of those guys who sing really high-pitched-"  
  
"Castratos."  
  
" -yeah, those, castratos. And after I'd have whacked off his bits, I'd feed them to Jemma, because she eats everything." Jemma was her dog who was always hungry, and ate anything and everything.  
  
I decided not to tell her that castratos were supposed to get their bits whacked off before they reached puberty, and Brad had definitely reached puberty.  
  
Besides, now I was too worked up to think about anything else. "The fucking dickhead! I'm gonna march in there, and...and..."  
  
"Do something really, really bad?" Laura finished, giving me a look.  
  
"Yeah," I said, deflating. I'm no good at threats, whereas Laura always thinks up really creative ones. Hence the castratos.  
  
"C'mon, the bedroom is this way," she said, tramping through the knee-high weeds that inhabited this side of the house. I didn't walk after her.  
  
"How do you know that they're in the bedroom?" I asked. She stopped and gave me another look. Riiight. Stupid question.  
  
There was a convenient log under the bedroom window, but I still had to stand on my toes to see inside.  
  
"Looks like as if he's necking her," Laura said softly. She's taller than me and she doesn't have to stand on her toes. All I could see was Brad's body on the bed, and could only guess that someone was beneath him.  
  
"Which one?"  
  
"Looks like Janie. She looks kinda stoned. I haven't heard about Brad using, but now that I see what he's up to here, I don't know what he would do."  
  
I didn't care if Brad was on drugs or not. At the moment, all I wanted was revenge. Maybe a confrontation in front of the whole goddamn school. "I can't see Amber around anywhere, can you?"  
  
"No sign of her. No wait, I think I see her, coming out of the bathroom. She's got something in her hand." By this time we both had our noses pressed to the glass, straining our eyes against the dark. "Oh my God, I think she's got a giant dildo in her hand!"  
  
I jumped, and managed to see Amber with something in her hand that did look a lot like a giant dildo, but it was hard to tell in the light. "What do you think she's going to do with that?" I squeaked.  
  
Laura looked at me as if I was an idiot. Laura's good at those looks.  
  
"Oh God, I can't watch this," I said, putting my hand over my eyes, but peeking through my fingers.  
  
"I have to say, I never knew that Janie was bi-"  
  
Suddenly, Amber raised the dildo above her head, and plunged in into the back of Brad. Blood spurted onto her face and her white shirt. We both screamed.  
  
I had a split second to see Amber snap her head towards the window, and mouth the words 'Oh, shit', before I was off and running after Laura. 


	3. Part 2

Two  
  
By the time we'd stopped, we had both ran at least three blocks and whereas I was puffing hard, Laura could've still kept up pace for another three blocks before she would start to falter. I stumbled on the pavement and leant against a tree. Laura jogged back to me.  
  
"Gotta...breath...water..." I gasped. "Can't...go...stop..."  
  
Laura stopped jogging, and leant against the tree with me. "Yeah, you're right, I don't think she'll have followed us this far." We had cut through several smaller streets and a park, and come out on a main road. Cars swooshed past us without a care for two teenagers who'd just seen one of their boyfriends murdered.  
  
I felt hysteria bubbling under the surface and suddenly I was overcome with an incredible urge to scream. But if I started screaming, I wasn't sure if I would stop.  
  
"We have to be calm about this," I said levelly after I had gotten my breath back. It was good to know that one part of my brain was working, because my other half was completely useless, because all it could seem to do was say, 'fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck' over and over again.  
  
"We should probably keep moving just in case," Laura said. "Amber might try to come after us."  
  
"Yeah," I said. "Yeah." I stopped suddenly. "We have to tell the police."  
  
Laura stopped with me. "Ok, let's think about this. We have no idea why Amber killed Brad. I'm not even sure if I actually saw it, but think about this realistically. Are the police going to believe two teenagers that have walked out of nowhere? They'd think we were stoned or something."  
  
"Then what the fuck are we going to do?" I shouted.  
  
"We've gotta think about-"  
  
Laura's voice was cut out when an arm reached out from nowhere, clamped her mouth shut, and pulled her into a driveway. I tried to scream, but then I realised the someone else had their hand clamped onto my mouth as well.  
  
"If I let go of you, will you promise not to scream or run away?" a familiar husky voice said. I managed to nod, and then I was free. I whipped around, and came face to face with Amber Cartwright and Deacin Frost. 


	4. Part 3

Three  
  
The first thing I thought was, 'Gee, Amber has the same t-shirt as me'.  
  
Then I took a deep breath to scream.  
  
"Jesus, hold her," I heard Frost say in his cool half American, half Australian accent, and Amber clamped her hand over my mouth again. My eyes darted to the right, and I could see Laura looking blankly at the ground. She was awake, but she looked...stoned. Shit! They had gotten to Laura!  
  
"She's ok," Amber's husky voice said. "We just needed to shut her up before she screamed down the town. Now, if I let go of you, will you promise not to scream and run away?" she asked again. I nodded, and she backed away slowly, until she was sure that wasn't going to bolt.  
  
"Alright," she said and relaxed. "Now, I know you guys must be a little confused." I looked at Laura and she seemed to be coming out of her daze.  
  
"Confused! Confused?" I shouted. "I am waaay past confused." I lowered my voice because I realised I didn't want to end up stoned or whatever. I stabbed my finger in their general direction. "You guys killed my boyfriend! You're murderers," I hissed, and realised that I probably shouldn't be provoking the nice murderers, but it was too late now. "I saw you kill him with a dildo," I accused Amber.  
  
She looked at me blankly. "A dildo?"  
  
"Yeah!" Laura piped up, obviously recovered. "I saw you too! A freaking giant dildo!"  
  
Frost seemed to think something was funny, and he was pissing himself trying not to laugh. "Jesus," he said, "you thought it was a fucking dildo."  
  
Then Amber seemed to get the joke, and suddenly she was grinning too.  
  
"What? What's so funny?"  
  
"Look...we'll tell you later. Meanwhile, we should get out of this nice family's driveway," Frost said.  
  
"What, you expect us to just go with you?" Laura challenged.  
  
Frost's eyes suddenly went dark and scary, and I understood why people called him by his last name. "Yes," he said simply, but the word contained a dictionary of meanings, with adjectives, nouns, pronouns...the whole shebang.  
  
I swallowed. "Ok." 


	5. Part 4

Four  
  
"Anything to drink?" Amber asked. She opened the fridge. "I have orange juice, lemonade, coke, milk and water." She looked at Laura and me who were sitting on the kitchen table, trying to look unobtrusive.  
  
She'd made us call our parents, and tell them the double thing. You know, I was at Laura's house, she was at mine. While Laura was making her call, I had time to snoop through the house. It wasn't filled with headless bodies, rotting corpses or guilty knives covered with blood. It was, however, filled with red flowered crockery, a cow cookie jar, and wooden furnishings. Damned pretty house for a psychopathic butcherer, but I'm biased.  
  
"Um, we're alright, thanks," I said, because Laura was too busy staring at Frost's ass - uh, behind - while he was temporarily bent over to get glasses. She licked her lips.  
  
"Something stronger maybe?" Amber said, hidden behind the fridge with only her shaven long legs poking out at the bottom. "Beer, vodka, Barcardi, whisky, Bailey's, what's your poison?"  
  
"I don't like alcohol."  
  
Everybody froze. Amber closed the fridge to look at me, Laura stopped mid- perve, and even Frost glanced back at me.  
  
"Jesus Jennifer!" Laura cried. When she calls me Jennifer, the world is ending. "You're not supposed tell complete strangers that!"  
  
"What? What!"  
  
"That you don't like alcohol!"  
  
"What's wrong with not liking alcohol?"  
  
She smacked her forehead. "It's ok because I know you already, but people are going to think that you're some kind of freak who doesn't like beer."  
  
"But I don't like beer!"  
  
"Just trust me with this, why don't you? Don't you dare say that to complete strangers again!"  
  
I put my hands up. "Ok, ok. I give up."  
  
Frost coughed. "Getting back to the topic?"  
  
Amber poured a coke for herself. "If you insist."  
  
"I do."  
  
Amber nodded and drank her coke. Interpersonal skills at its best.  
  
Laura leaned towards me. "You don't suppose that they're...you know," she whispered.  
  
"Know what?"  
  
"That they're...together?"  
  
"Who knows?" Although it sounded more like, 'Hoo owes?' because I tried to do that ventriloquist trick where you spoke, but you didn't move mouth.  
  
Laura's face went ashen. "They are together, aren't they?"  
  
"How the hell am I supposed to know?" I said from the corner of my mouth.  
  
Laura shut up, because by that time, Amber and Frost had come to sit at the quaint pine table, on the wooden seats with flower cushions.  
  
"So you want to know why I killed Brad," Amber said with her hands clasped on the table. The epitome of Mona Lisa, minus all-knowing smile. It'd be more reassuring if she wasn't a murderer.  
  
"That'd be nice," I said calmly.  
  
She looked at Frost for help, but he just shrugged. His eyes shifted towards me, and his hands brushed away some blond hair from his eyes. I could imagine those hands running down my back, staring into those intense blue eyes, my lips on his skin...  
  
"Jenny."  
  
"Whaa?"  
  
Amber rolled her eyes, although I got the idea that it was more for Frost than me. "Ok. For the next few minutes, I'm going to sound like I'm completely off my head, but everything I tell you is true, ok?"  
  
This was not a promising beginning. In fact, it made me wonder if she was a disillusioned psycho serial killer. Which would be a shame, since Frost would be her accomplice.  
  
"It's this thing called the Night World."  
  
"Where's the Night World?"  
  
"It's not a place. It's like a secret society."  
  
Laura's eyes lit up at the words, 'secret society'. "Like a cult? Or like Paul Walker and Joshua Jackson in the Skulls?"  
  
"No, not really -"  
  
"Like the Freemasons in From Hell?"  
  
"Not quite."  
  
I could practically see Laura's brain scanning through her enormous movie database for cults. Or secret societies. It was like Google-For-Movies-or- TV inside her brain.  
  
Frost cut in mid-search. "It's a secret society of vampires, witches and shapeshifters," and when Amber looked at him, he just shrugged. "Might as well get to the point."  
  
Yup, definitely crazy.  
  
On the other hand, Laura beamed. "Like Blade! I bet they have a whole vampire Bible written in blood and everything. And..." she frowned. "Deacin Frost can't be your real name."  
  
"Good thing it isn't," he replied. He gave her a look that stopped Laura from saying anything further. First person I'd seen who could do that. "I'm not going to explain it to you either."  
  
I tried to appeal to my best friend. "Laura, think about what they're saying! They're saying that vampires are real!"  
  
She looked at me as if I were an idiot. "Well, yeah."  
  
"But they're not real!"  
  
"There are more things than heaven and earth -"  
  
"Oh, don't pull the Shakespeare, A+ English Student, Future New York Times' Bestselling Author crap on me. There are no such things are vampires," I said resignedly. On the other hand, I knew that murdering lunatics did exist. Ah, choices, choices.  
  
"Why don't people ever believe it?" Amber said with annoyance. "I believed it."  
  
Frost laughed. "You only believed it because you about to get your neck chomped off."  
  
"I would have still believed," she said gruffly.  
  
Laura waved her hand. "Uh, hello, I believe you guys."  
  
"You're the exception."  
  
"Are you saying I'm weird?" Laura accused, looking very offended.  
  
Amber was confused. Which was understandably in the case of Laura. "What? No!"  
  
"You are!" Laura stood up, angrily.  
  
"Am not!" Amber said standing up as well.  
  
This would have continued if not for Frost baring his fangs and snarling. Stop. Fangs. Snarling.  
  
"Ahhhhh!" I screamed in unison with Laura. I grabbed her hand and we ran into the bathroom, locking the door.  
  
"I thought you believed in vampires!" I said hysterically.  
  
"Yeah, but I didn't say I believed Frost was a vampire!"  
  
"Oh my God, they're real! We have to get out of here. We're in a house with a bunch of murdering vampires!"  
  
"You're right, Amber has to be a vampire too!"  
  
"If only I was Christian!" I wailed.  
  
Laura looked at me wildly. "I have a crucifix!" she said, and took out a lavishly decorated cross from underneath her turtleneck.  
  
"I didn't know you were Christian."  
  
"I'm not. It's a fashion statement."  
  
"Ok, you distract them with the cross, while I unlock the front door, and we'll run out together."  
  
"Why do I have to be the one to distract them?" she asked me. She sniffed. "I don't even believe in God."  
  
"Because it's your cross! Ready? One, two, three!" And we were out in the corridor before Laura could argue any more. Amber and Frost were standing there, unmoving, and I ran to get the door.  
  
"Away, you even fiends from Hell!" Laura shouted, as I fumbled with the lock.  
  
"Crosses don't work," I heard Frost say.  
  
I stopped fumbling. "You didn't get it blessed! Why didn't you get it blessed?" I said to Laura accusingly.  
  
"I told you! It's a fashion statement! Why would I get it blessed?"  
  
"Because you believe in vampires!"  
  
"I'm putting an end to this idiocy," Frost muttered, and I blacked out. 


	6. Part 5

Five  
  
"You could have been a bit more subtle," I heard Amber say. Amber...something important was going on, but my brain couldn't quite grasp what was happening.  
  
"I did what was necessary. Although now I'll have to go out and feed."  
  
Feed...?  
  
"Vampires!" I shouted, but it sounded more like, "Amp pyahf!" because I had been gagged. In fact, I had also been tied to a seat. I felt like James Bond all over again, but the problem was James Bond would have some nifty gizmo that would get him out of trouble. I looked at my watch and dearly wished that it had a super magnet, telephone and laser installed. Meanwhile, I realised that ten o'clock meant that mum's pasta bake and potato salad would be gone. Brian wouldn't be nice enough to leave me any.  
  
"Looks like they're awake," Amber said walking towards me. She was coming to kill me! Oh, I could see her as a vampire, with that long auburn hair, cool hazel eyes, long slender legs, pouty lips, voluptuous body stalking the streets of Melbourne. Damn, I was jealous.  
  
They had placed Laura, tied, gagged and all in a chair next to me, and put down two chairs opposite us. Amber and Frost sat down in each one. My eyes darted frantically to Laura, and we stared at each other wide eyed for a little while. The cross hadn't worked! But...the chair! The chair was made out of wood! Ha! Let's see how he'd like a stake shoved into his damned, evil and unholy heart! Providing he had a heart - who knew about vampires? All I had to do was break free from the ropes, smash the chair into a bazillion tiny sharp pieces, and shove it into his heart while preventing Amber from killing me.  
  
My spirits sunk. Buffy had made it look so easy! A little witty repartee, some gymnastic flips, cool karate moves and the vamp was dusted! Even a numbskull could do it! Even Xander could do it! I was a pathetic no-hoper like, like...Tara! Except she could use magic. Maybe I could use magic! Who knew, if vampires existed, why couldn't I be a witch in denial?  
  
I stared at Frost's chair and willed it to crack into splinters that would impale every part of his body. I also willed the splinters to tear off his clothes before they killed him.  
  
After a few seconds, I realised that I was lower than Tara in the Scooby Gang (granted, she's not there anymore, but she was the lowest in the history). I was as bad as Fred! All I could do was spout off physics equations! Except...I couldn't even do that! I was so low, that I wasn't even in the cast of Angel or Buffy! No, wait...what about Dawn? Ugh, rather not be in the cast.  
  
"This is just a precaution. We didn't want you screaming and running around again. The neighbours already think we're weird enough. Especially when Frost took some people back here for questioning."  
  
They lived together? Laura was right, they were together! Completely, utterly, totally. Any chance of Frost taking me out was down the drain. Of course, now that I had discovered he was a creature of the night, and a psychopathic serial murderer, there was no chance I would consider if he asked me. Which was a shame. But then I couldn't have gone out with him anyway, as much as I wanted to, because Laura would be pissed off because she bagged him first.  
  
"Now, I want you to listen to me carefully. Frost is not a full vampire. He's a...hybrid between a witch and a vampire. I'm not a vampire at all. And we're on your side."  
  
Yeah, right.  
  
Amber crossed her arms over her chest. "If we were evil bloodsucking monsters, then wouldn't you be dead by now?"  
  
That was a good point. Why weren't we dead?  
  
"I'll tell you why. Because we're NOT evil bloodsucking monsters!"  
  
Oh.  
  
"Now for the last time, will you promise not to scream?"  
  
We both nodded obediently.  
  
"I hardly ever feed anyway," Frost was saying conversationally as Amber was ungagging and untying us. "Only after when I use my superpowers."  
  
"What are your superpowers?" Laura asked, excited that he was on our side again. "This is sooo cool. It's like X-Men all over again!"  
  
Frost flashed her a grin that made you melt in your seat. And that was only me. "I can knock people out," he said, "and then, I've got other superpowers that you can only imagine."  
  
My lower bits went all tingly.  
  
"So why are you killing vampires if you're a vampire?"  
  
His eyes went all dark and scary again. Crap. Maybe I shouldn't have asked.  
  
"The Night World aren't too friendly with their hybrids," he said softly, in that menacing, I'm-going-to-kill-you way. "Circle Daybreak relocated me, and gave me choice of my own name." He shrugged. "What can I say? I liked the movie."  
  
"What about the character?" Laura asked.  
  
Damn, I hadn't seen Blade. Memo to oneself: watch the movie Blade and pay close attention to the character Deacin Frost.  
  
"It's ironic," he replied.  
  
"What's Circle Daybreak?" I asked, the ignoramus that I am. Laura hadn't asked. Maybe it was some chic rock group that I had never heard of, but I should have!  
  
"It's an organisation that promotes cross species relations."  
  
"Whaa?"  
  
"It's an organisation that wants peace between Night Worlders and humans..."  
  
"Like the UN!" Laura cried. What did I say about those movies?  
  
"No, not like the UN. They've been persecuted from the Night World for breaking their rules. But basically their nice people, although they're a bit loose at times. We keep in contact with them for administrative purposes, because they don't really approve of what we're doing."  
  
"And what are you doing?"  
  
Amber gave a not-very-nice smile. "Vampire hunting of course. Why do you think Brad needed to be staked?"  
  
Two things became clear to me at that point. One, Brad was a vampire, and was probably going to suck my blood out had Amber not killed him. And more importantly, two, the dildo was actually a stake!  
  
"Yeah!" Laura jumped up and punched her hand in the air. "Kill the bloodsucking fiends!" She stopped in mid-punch and looked at Frost guiltily. "Not you, of course."  
  
"Of course not," Frost said dryly.  
  
"So you're willing to help us?" Amber asked, a little too eager for my taste.  
  
"Well, yeah, sure! Won't we Jen?"  
  
I nodded. I was even more stupid than I had thought. Even Dawn wouldn't have nodded, although that's still debatable. 


	7. Part 6

Thanks for reviewing everyone (makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside)! Really, it keeps up morale. I realised that I actually changed the main character's name from Jen to Jane, so I've gone back, and corrected them all to Jen. ~**~  
  
Part Six  
  
I had gotten home with strict instructions from Frost and Amber that I should act exactly the same as I always did. Hunh, good luck for that. We arranged another meeting for tomorrow afternoon.  
  
"Did you have fun at Laura's?"  
  
"Whaa?"  
  
Mum looked at me. "You went to Laura's house, remember?"  
  
"Oh. Yeah. Laura's." I said. "Is there any pasta bake left?" I asked. Maybe Brian was going to be nice for once.  
  
"No." Or maybe not. "But I made another batch of potato salad because I knew you would want some. It's in the fridge."  
  
I sat down at the bench top and watched mum prepare something for tomorrow. She was one of those people who seemed to be able to fit thirty-six hours into twenty-four. I hadn't actually seen her sleep yet. While other kids woke their mothers with breakfast in bed on mother's day, I had to make do with coming into the bedroom when my mum was reading the newspaper. Which meant she had already gotten up, went outside to get the paper, and hopped back into bed.  
  
"What are you making?" I asked after a swallow of the divine potato salad.  
  
"We're having some people over tomorrow afternoon. Some new friends of your fathers. They've just recently moved here temporarily from Las Vegas, and he really likes them, so he invited them over. He met them at the office. The O'Malley's. They were originally from Ireland." She opened the oven, checked whatever was in it, and closed it again. "Crème caramel," she explained. Dad works for an investing company. Whoopeedoo, what fun.  
  
"Do they have Irish or American accents then?" I have a thing for accents, and mum knows. I stuffed some more potato salad in my mouth.  
  
She shrugged. "Guess you'll just have to be there. Their son is coming too. He's around your age."  
  
Translation: Jen, you don't have a boyfriend, I'm worried about you hanging around with Laura all the time, and I think you should talk to some more people your age.  
  
"Uh, thanks mum."  
  
She wiped her hands on the apron I gave her a few years ago (it says 'World's Greatest Chef') and smiled. "For what, honey?"  
  
I shook my head, and continued stuffing myself with salad.  
  
"Anyway, since they'll be talking about accounts and money and things till dinner, I though maybe you could take their son around Sullivan and show him the sites."  
  
I swallowed the salad in one go. "What?"  
  
"Well, why not, honey?"  
  
Well, what if he was ugly? What if he was a nerd? What if he didn't have an accent? "I suppose I could," I said, doing a very Dawn-like thing again.  
  
"Well, it's settled then. You take him to the park, and to the cinemas or wherever you young people hang around these days. They're only here for a month or so, and he'll be coming to Sullivan High with you."  
  
Damn, if he was ugly, nerdy, or just plain boring, I would have to have him in tow for at least a month at school. Wasn't going to do well for my social status that was already at an all time low.  
  
"Great," I managed to say, and finished the potato salad with one big mouthful. This was the last mouthful to be savoured.  
  
"Remember to be here tomorrow afternoon after netball training."  
  
Wait. Netball training in morning. Tomorrow afternoon...damn, I was supposed to go to Frost's/Amber's house.  
  
"Uh, actually mum, I can't make it tomorrow."  
  
"Hmm? And why not little lady?"  
  
Quick! Think of an excuse. "I've got a boyfriend," I blurted, and then mentally smacked myself in the head.  
  
Mum's eyebrows went up. "A boyfriend?"  
  
"Yes," I blabbered, "his name is Deacin Frost, and when I told you that I was meeting Laura, I was actually meeting him." Damnit, now I had just gotten myself into deeper shit.  
  
"You know we don't mind you having a boyfriend, Jen. Why did you keep it from us?"  
  
I twiddled my fingers. "Because, uh, we'd just started going out the other day, and we weren't sure if we actually wanted to, so I was going to tell you after our relationship was a bit more stable."  
  
"Well, dear. The O'Malley's son is only here for a month, and I've already said that you'd probably show him around. Could you postpone the date?"  
  
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. "No. It's his birthday tomorrow." By this time, I was just about making up anything that came into my mind.  
  
My mum wrinkled her nose and frowned. "Well, then you won't mind if the O'Malley's son comes along with you to your date."  
  
Damn, she'd pulled the ultimatum. "Alright. Fine. I'll ring and cancel." And try not to get killed by Frost. I had told my mother that he was my boyfriend! What was I thinking? Now they'd want to meet him! Oh God, why was I cursed with the Dawn gene?  
  
I headed for my room. What a day.  
  
"Oh, and honey?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Isn't Deacin Frost a character from Blade?"  
  
Even my mum has seen the movie.  
  
"Uh...no. 'Night!"  
  
I bounded up the stairs and jumped into my bed - fully clothed - and pretended I was asleep, so she couldn't ask anything else. I lay awake and stared at the glow-in-the-dark stars stuck on my ceiling. Stupid vampires, stupid Amber, stupid Night World, stupid, yet very sexy Frost... 


	8. Part 7

For all you ignoramus' netball is an Australia based game (although I think New Zealand and South Africa and a few other selected countries have it), and it's like basketball, but with more rules and stuff.  
  
Sorry for lack of updates. Hectic schedule. ~**~ Part Seven  
  
"I, uh, gotta cancel for this arvo," I said nervously over the phone. "Mum arranged something beforehand, and I forgot about it."  
  
I could imagine Frost frowning.  
  
"I can't get out of it," I shot in before he had time to say anything.  
  
He sighed. "Fine. Whatever. Laura can fill you in."  
  
End conversation.  
  
By the way things were going, I wouldn't even have to contemplate about what I would do if Frost asked me to the dance. Now that Brad was a dead bloodsucking vampire, I had no one to take me. Frost and dancing probably weren't even compatible. I bet dancing wasn't even in his vocabulary. He probably didn't know how to dance. See? It was a good, good thing that he would never ask me to the dance. Or so I tried to convince myself. No dilemma about Laura putting dibs on him.  
  
Meanwhile, we'd lost the netball match against Waverly High, ten to nil. Sullivan High was not known for their fantastic netball team. In many places, Sullivan High was not even known. Like today. Waverly thought they were playing against Richmond or something. I don't think Richmond even has a high school.  
  
I checked the clock on the wall. Three. That meant that he was going to be here anytime now. Anytime. I had this all planned out. Keep him away from Frost, Amber and Laura. Considering that they were all going to be at Frost's house, it was going to be pretty easy. The park and the house were on the opposite sides of Sullivan. Okay, Sullivan ain't that big to make a difference, but at least they weren't next door to each other. Like us and my grandparents for example. They lived about three houses away. Thank God it was a business meeting, otherwise they would have had to come.  
  
My grandparents are crazy. Mum just calls them senile. Dad doesn't even talk about them, much less talk to them. I think he's ashamed that his wife has crazy parents. From when we were little, Brian and I made a pact to never, ever, ever leave each other alone with them.  
  
My grandfather was in the army, and constantly talks about his time in the war. That wouldn't be so bad, if we all hadn't known that he was actually a cook in the war, and never did any real fighting. Not that he talks about fighting. A conversation with him usually goes like this:  
  
"How are you today, Jennifer?"  
  
They insist on calling me by my whole name.  
  
"Fine, thanks."  
  
"What did you have for breakfast?"  
  
"Just some cornflakes-"  
  
"Cornflakes? Why you younglings have it easy, don't you? We had no corn in the war, much less cornflakes! And I suppose you had milk with those as well? In the war, the only way we'd get calcium was by chewing the bones of the dead! And fresh juice too? Ha! Nothing fresh for us! The only juice we'd be able to get was from them poisonous red berries. They were the only way we could get vitamin C, and soldier's died from consumption if they ate too much, but they died from vitamin C deficiency if they ate too little..."  
  
And so on and so forth.  
  
The sound of electronic "Jingle Bells" echoed through the house and I jumped. The previous occupant had installed the stupid doorbell, and as of yet (we've been here for about ten or so years...) we haven't got around to changing it. I think mum secretly likes it. I know dad hates it, because he complains every time he hears it.  
  
"Goddamn it Lydia!" I heard him curse. "When are we going to get rid of that goddamn bell? It's like bloody Christmas every bloody time someone rings it. Jesus H. Christ."  
  
I checked in the mirror for the last time. I'd dressed in a blue tee, and a regulation length denim skirt. Uhuh, that's me, Jennifer Mackay, cool, calm and casual.  
  
"Just call me Jen," I said, and winked at my reflection.  
  
Ugh. Too flirty.  
  
I held my hand out. "Hi, I'm Jen. What's your name?"  
  
Too preppy.  
  
"Whatsup?"  
  
Too try-hard.  
  
"Hey, my name's Jen. My folks said I had to show you around."  
  
Too sullen-teenager.  
  
"Jen! Are you coming down?"  
  
Maybe I could just pretend to be mute.  
  
I hopped down the stairs, peering over the banister, hoping to catch a glimpse of him before he caught a glimpse of me. You know, just in case he was butt ugly.  
  
"Unmph," I said, as I hit my arm against the wall, which consequently led to my tripping down the stairs, and falling into a heap at the bottom.  
  
"Shiii-iiishkabab," I said, remembering that we had company just in time. The awful humiliation. The awful curse of the Dawn. The awful clumsiness that had skipped a generation from my parents, and was passed on to me, but not Brian. It was not worth opening my eyes.  
  
"Are you okay?" An unfamiliar voice asked.  
  
My eyes snapped open against my will to the sound of the delicious sex-on- wheels Irish accent. Not that I've had sex or anything. Being next to Frost was probably the closest thing to sex I'd ever had. Laura - the prettier and more experienced one - had had sex with her last boyfriend, and told me so many details that would put a virgin off sex forever.  
  
I wouldn't have minded having sex with this guy though.  
  
Green eyes were probably the first thing I noticed. Then it was the body encased in t-shirt. Then it was the slightly upturned lips that hinted at a smile. Then the dark hair that reminded me of Brad Pitt with dark hair before the days he decided that he wanted to be a victim of fashion and grew his hair long. He looked nice, and rugged, and had the wholesome, boy- next-door, innocent eyes thing going on. As opposed to the dark, mysterious, dangerous, bad-boy thing that Frost had going.  
  
"Gee you're pretty," I said, and died of humiliation the second time in the space of two minutes. It had to be a record. The last time I was so embarrassed had been when I slipped on my ass into mud, and looked like I had shitted my pants for the rest of the day.  
  
"Thanks," he said and pulled me up. "You must be Jennifer."  
  
"Jen," I said automatically. I was determined not to make a fool of myself the second time round. "Who are you?"  
  
"I'm Lachlan."  
  
Lachlan! What a name!  
  
"You can call me Lock."  
  
Lock! And I was the Key! As in MacKEY. Ok, it was Mackay, but Kay sounded a bit like Key, right? Right?  
  
Dad cleared his throat. "This is my daughter, Jennifer."  
  
I looked at Lock's parents. I looked at Lock. Then, I looked at his parents again. He looked vaguely like his father, but all in all, there wasn't much resemblance except for the colouring.  
  
"Lachlan's always taken after his grandparents," his mother said, as if reading my mind. Her mother looked like the type who'd never worked a day in her life, and sat at home watching The Days of Out Lives. I would've said she looked like the type to watch Jerry Springer, but she seemed too classy to watch something so low. Expensive, exotic perfume permeated every pore of her body. She stank like a bouquet of flowers. Her makeup matched her dress as well, and I could see none of the discoloured skin, which was the tell-tale of bad foundation applying. Everyone in Sullivan, except for my grandmother who thought that makeup was the work of the devil, wore discoloured foundation to some extent.  
  
His dad wasn't much better, in his classy business suite and tie. He looked like a lawyer. Goddamnit, why did he have to have more respectable parents than me? Sure, my mum is nice, but she thinks that peddle-pushers were the height of fashion, and my dad...well, I don't want to be here forever, do I?  
  
"Honey, why don't you take Lachlan out and you can get to know each other better, and you can show him around. Remember to be home at six," mum said.  
  
"Oh, that's alright Mrs. Mackay-"  
  
"Lydia, please."  
  
"-I'm sure Jenni...Jen has other things to do."  
  
Not only did the perfect parents come to our house, but they also had the perfect son! The perfect son with the perfect body. I had to check that I hadn't drooled on my t-shirt.  
  
"No, no, no," I said. "That's fine. I'll take him to the park." I gave Lock a brilliant grin that meant, 'I'm really, really friendly and you'll love going to the park'.  
  
"Well, if you're sure..."  
  
"'Course I'm sure," I said, and all, but shoved him outside. 


	9. Part 8

Crown is a casino, with the lot. Like a hotel, shops, cinema, nightclubs, food courts, etc.  
  
Thanks to Lisa for reviewing and realising that I'm getting senile, and that somehow I changed Amber into Amanda and that I did the Jen/Jane thing again. Now where did I put my false teeth...?  
  
~**~  
  
Part Eight  
  
I had worn clothes that pretty much could be matched up against my facial expression. A white halter top, because it was too hot to wear anything dark. It could either mean, "I'm too cool for you" or "I'm totally party chick". At the moment, I think I was trying to project, "I'm cool, I'm with it, will you go out with me?". But if that didn't work, "I'm totally party chick" was okay as well. And then I had worn the not-too-short, not-too- long denim skirt. Bleached denim, which, again, could mean anything. I had forgone the hoop earrings just in case in looked too teeny-bopper. For all I knew, he could be into punk. He was wearing a clean-cut black shirt, and some jeans. They were like my clothes: pretty non-descript.  
  
We walked down the street with the large trees overheard. I don't know what type of tree they were. Don't ask. They were big, they shed leaves in autumn, and at the moment, they gave us the cool shade that we needed so badly. Patches of sunlight filtered through the leaves, and made patterns against the pavement. Birds twitter. Cars swoosh by. A large dog jumps against the fence next to me, and barks.  
  
"Ahhh, fuck me!" I shrieked, and jumped away from the fence, and subsequently, the German Shepherd, who seemed to think that I was one tasty morsel.  
  
Lock caught me, of course, being the gentleman he was.  
  
"Not on the first date."  
  
"What?" I asked by reaction, and then it was a few seconds before I got what he was saying. I blushed. "I didn't mean, uuuh..." Not that I would've minded, but somehow, I didn't think that Locke would like me screaming, "Take me! Take me now!" in the middle of the street.  
  
He grinned. "You're cute."  
  
I blushed harder. I could just pretend the heat was getting to me. "Thanks," I said. The only person who'd ever told me was Johnny Baker in year seven, and that was only because he really, desperately needed a date. Usually, it's Laura that gets complimented. Not that I mind, because I know she gets sick to death of complete wackos coming up to her in the street and jerking off in front of her. Creepy. Now, she carries spray on deodourant everywhere, which was her equivalent to mace.  
  
"So what's so special about this park we're going to?" he asked.  
  
"Well, um, nothing really. Except it has this thing on the ground, and when you step on it, water spurts up from these jets in the ground. Like Crown." Then I realised he's never been to Crown. "It's fun to run through during summer."  
  
"Will we run through it today?" he asked.  
  
"Uh, well. This top..." what I wanted to say was that white halter tops become almost transparent in water "...is one of my favourites, so I don't want to get it wet," I finished lamely. It was better than the alternative.  
  
"Oh," Lock said, sounding a bit disappointed. "Are you usually this conservative?"  
  
Conservative? Moi? Surely not. "So what type of music do you like?" I asked, changing the subject completely.  
  
He shrugged. "I don't know. I like Placebo. Garbage-"  
  
"That's so cool! Garbage is my favourite band!" Placebo I thought was weird - guys dressing up as girls were really not my thing - but Garbage rocked! "If you stay longer, you should go to The Big Day Out. It's got a lot of Aussie acts, and some stuff from overseas. Like Garbage and Placebo."  
  
He didn't say anything. In fact, he seemed to be concentrating hard on the concrete. Shit...maybe I'd come on with the friendliness too strong? Did he think I was a total klutz? Or even worse, a wannabe! Maybe he thought I didn't even know who Placebo and Garbage were, and I actually liked, horror of all horrors, Avril Lavigne.  
  
"I like Pure Morning," I offered. Okay, I didn't really like it, but it was listenable.  
  
Lock blinked. "Oh, sorry. I was out of it for a little while."  
  
"It's okay if you think I'm boring," I said, although it was most certainly not okay.  
  
"No, it's not that. I just sometimes..." he tried to find an explanation that would not hurt my feelings, "...well, sometimes I get blank-outs."  
  
My jaw dropped. "Like epilepsy?"  
  
He coughed. "No, um, epilepsy is the one with the fits."  
  
Wow, he was not only hot hot hot, but he also knew one disease from the other. Epilepsy was a disease right?  
  
"Oh, look. We're here at the park," I said, attempting to sound cheery. And then I had a sudden feeling of realisation. I had thought it was just me sweating a lot, but... Shit! It just happened to have happened at that time, didn't it.  
  
"I just, uh, need to go to the toilet...badly. Why don't you look around first and I'll come and find you?" I said, and ran off in the direction of the public toilet block. They stank, were completely unhygienic, but it was better than doing it behind a bush. I was just lucky that I always carried a pad around. I had learnt that lesson a long time ago.  
  
I took a deep gasp and went inside. The only way that someone could survive the smell was to not breath through your nose. I figured that if something smelt that bad, it shouldn't be going into your lungs in the first place. I slammed the door of the cubicle, and fumbled with the packaging. I let out a precious little air. This was going to be the quickest toilet break I'd ever had.  
  
I made it outside with little air to spare, but the point was, I had not breathed. And now, I was protected by Libra Ultra Thins for Regular Flow. Despite my quick, uh, well, you know, I could not see Lock anywhere. He'd probably taken my advice, and explored around the corner.  
  
Sullivan Park (also known as Sullivan Gardens, although where they got the 'gardens' is beyond me) had an oval on the side that we'd entered, but the real park was located at one end, so it was kind of like an L shape. We'd entered on the farther side, so I would have to cross at least half of the oval to get to where I suspected Lock was. Damn. I hated any type of exercise, unless there was a very good reason for it. Mum just tells me that I should be thankful for our family's good metabolism.  
  
Lock, unfortunately, was not a good enough reason, because he came without a guarantee. So instead of running across, I walked briskly. Okay, my version of brisk, which took about five minutes. I've got short legs, okay?  
  
"Hey Lock-"  
  
As I rounded the corner, Frost was there. No, correction: Amber and Laura were standing there, watching Frost and Lock look at each other as if they were gunslingers from a Western. They all looked at me simultaneously, but the two cowboys looked back at each other almost immediately. Where was the trust?  
  
"I thought you were at Amber's," I said to Laura.  
  
"No room to practise whatever," she explained. "We were about to start when this guy came around the corner." Then in a quieter voice, "Who's the hottie?" Her eyes travelled up and down, assessing. "Nice catch."  
  
I cleared my throat. "Uh, everyone, this is Lachlan O'Malley. Although it seemed that he and Frost already know each other."  
  
Both of them looked at me again, and I was aware at how different they were. Frost was like a cool breeze, the type of bad-boy that your mother would hate for you to know, but loved when she was a girl. Lock was definitely boy-next-door, flirty, funny, and always friendly. Unfortunately, neither of them were looking too friendly at the moment.  
  
"Jen, you know this person?" Lock asked. He seemed surprised, and even a little disappointed.  
  
"Kinda."  
  
Frost didn't say anything to me. He just stared daggers at Lock.  
  
Laura was the first to speak. "So...is anyone going to explain what's going on?" Amber looked as perplexed as both of us, so I guessed that it was probably a personal vendetta. Vendetta? Just a guess.  
  
Frost pursed his lips. "Alright. But not here." 


	10. Part 9

Because I am a loner, and I have nothing to do in the holidays, I have stayed up and written this, just you for you!  
  
~**~  
  
Part Nine  
  
Back at the wooden kitchen table, with floral pattern cushions.  
  
"I'm from Circle Daybreak," Lock said. His eyes slid towards Frost accusingly, "I was sent here to investigate some unofficial vampire kills."  
  
"All our kills have been passed through Circle Daybreak, and approved," Frost said quietly, but it was the type of quiet that came before the storm.  
  
"What about Bradley Pine? I just got news of that on the plane here."  
  
"Bradley was approved by Circle Daybreak," Amber said.  
  
Lock turned, and looked at her gravely. "Bradley Pine has never killed a human in his life. He might have been on the edge, but he never technically broke any rules."  
  
"Who cares? They're all monsters anyway." Everybody looked up. A thin girl walked into the room that I'd never seen before. She was in fact, very, very thin, which made her seem taller, or was that shorter? She looked like a fragile buttercup that could be blown away, whereas Laura looked more like a surfie-chick off Blue Crush or off a poster of Jetty Surf. Her skin was utterly pale, without the usual freckles to break it up. Despite her delicate appearance, she seemed very confident.  
  
Lock was angry at her remark, "Just because some Night People abuse humans, doesn't mean all of us do."  
  
"Yeah, and Circle Daybreak is doing so much to fight them," blond fluff replied sarcastically, and pulled up a chair.  
  
"Killing is not the way to resolve anything. Circle Daybreak only do it as a last resort," his eyes followed her movements carefully, although it was more like prey watching predator than vice versa.  
  
"Like we all haven't heard about you taking in Jezebel Redfern," she said, tossing her long hair back. Did I sense bitterness?  
  
"You weren't too bothered when we took in the Cat."  
  
Frost cleared his throat. "Back to the point?"  
  
I didn't know who any of these people were (the Cat? What kind of name is the Cat? Like Catwoman or something? No doubt this thought was going through Laura's mind), but I heard blond fluff whisper, "But the Cat is different, isn't she?"  
  
"Where's Dave?" Frost asked, as if to shut her up. Who the hell was Dave? Another one of the Scooby Gang? We were yet to have a Xander, perhaps Dave was a Xander.  
  
Blond fluff shrugged. "Don't know. Couldn't make it, I guess." She turned and gazed intently at Laura and me. I had to resist the urge to fiddle, or do something to avoid her piercing grey eyes. She was creepy. I looked over to Laura, and I could see she was trying to ignore blond fluff completely.  
  
"So you're the virgins," she said finally. I'm sure she meant it as a figure of speech.  
  
"And you are...?" Laura asked, with an arched eyebrow. You had to hand it to her, she was the popularity queen. Well, ex-popularity queen. Long story, and also irrelevant.  
  
Blond fluff broke into a sly grin, which made me like her less than I already did. "Anna will do." She turned back to the main conversation.  
  
"You could have called us," Frost was saying to Lock. "Given us some type of warning." The whole thing sounded like UN negotiations between the US and Iraq.  
  
"We didn't know what was happening. A completely normal group of slayers that had seemed to go renegade, we didn't know what the hell was going on," Lock said. "And we still don't know what's going on. All we know that you haven't approved for your last three kills." Lock stared angrily at Frost.  
  
Amber stood up, "I've got the approval letters. I'll go and get them." And she walked out of the room.  
  
Lock continued to glare at Frost, and Frost looked back coolly, but I could tell he was pissed off nonetheless. There seemed to be a lot of testosterone between them, not just because one was from Circle Daybreak and the other was a hunter. I was actually feeling pretty pleased with myself because I had understood the lingo. Although, I couldn't quite remember what Circle Daybreak was...I'd have to ask Laura. I was grateful that both of them could act professionally despite their personal differences. Somewhat professionally.  
  
Amber came back and tossed a few papers on the table. Lock slowly broke off eye contact and picked them up. He started scanning through each one carefully.  
  
"How many more people have you got with you?" Frost asked while he was still reading.  
  
Lock shook his head without looking up. "I'm not stupid."  
  
"I disagree," Frost said, which did make Lock look up. Frost gave him a charming smile. It was the type of smile that would charm the socks - and other items of clothing for that matter - off a person. If only he would point that charming smile my way.  
  
Then it suddenly occurred to me. If Frost was smiling at Lock that way, he was GAY! Or at least bisexual. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the latter. It was like that Robbie Williams song: "All the best women are married, all the handsome men are gay..." Although, for all I knew, Robbie was talking about happiness, not sexual preferences. Handsome men would be happy right? Because they were handsome and all...  
  
Lock shifted uncomfortably, and looked back down at the letters. At least he was straight without a shadow of doubt. He rubbed his temples, and flicked back some of the dark hair that'd fallen in his face. It made him look rugged and very sexy.  
  
"Whoever forged these knew what they were doing. They're an exact replica of our usual letters." If I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine him saying instead, "Oh Jen, you're the only one that I'll ever love" in that sweet Irish accent of his. I imagined him saying more things, like, "Jen, you're the most beautiful girl in the world" or "Let's runaway to Paris and get eloped".  
  
"Jen, why the hell do you have your eyes closed?" I heard Frost say. My eyes snapped open. Frost didn't have much of an accent (American accents were so common) but his voice was slightly husky - certainly not as husky as Amber's - with a tinge of male arrogance in it.  
  
"You'd look great in a black suit with a silk shirt," I said dreamily, leaning on my right hand.  
  
Frost stared at me for a heartbeat, but recovered well. He gave me a short flash of what he had just given Lock. I almost had a hot flush. Now pretty much everyone except for Laura - who was probably thinking the exact same thing - was staring at me. I blushed which made me go redder.  
  
"Nothing," I managed to say, but the damage was done. Today was not turning out to be a good day for my pride or my reputation. A little voice inside my head said, 'What reputation?' but I told it to shut up.  
  
Frost slowly turned back to the conversation, but kept his eyes on me. He had the nicest eyes, although Lock was giving him a run for his money. I noticed that his hair also fell into his face, more specifically, his eyes, and I wondered if that increased the sexy factor. It had to be some sort of cult secret that hot guys had going.  
  
"Who picks up the mail?" Lock asked. "It's a PO Box address."  
  
"What's it to you?" Anna said suspiciously.  
  
Lock looked at her wearily. "I'm here, so we might as well figure out what's going on."  
  
"Why don't you ask your Daybreak friends about it?" Anna suggested before Frost could say anything, and cocking her head to the side. "I'm sure they'd want to contribute." I suddenly felt sorry for Lock. He was here, all by his lonesome, with a bunch of people more or less against him.  
  
"How many?" Lock asked, to my surprise.  
  
"How many you got?" Anna said in an almost flirtatious way, but shut up when Frost looked at her. Damn, I wished I had that kind of glare.  
  
"Two. I'm sure you've got at least two Daybreakers with you." Trust Frost to use something like this to his advantage.  
  
Lock thought about this for a moment. "Deal. Tomorrow night. Two of yours, two of mine." He looked at Laura and me. "But I don't want them there."  
  
"Done," said Frost, while Laura and me said "Hey!" in unison.  
  
"Why don't we get a say in this?"  
  
"Because," Frost said, and silenced us with a look.  
  
Damn he was sexy.  
  
~**~  
  
And so the plot thickens. I love using clichés, as you may well have guessed by now. 


	11. Part 10

Please keep reviewing! The reviews are what keep me going. Oh, and does anyone want titles of chapters, instead of Part 1, Part 2, etc?  
  
~**~  
  
Part Ten  
  
"How was the park?"  
  
I froze. The park? What park?  
  
Thankfully, Lock came to my rescue. "The park was wonderful Mrs. Mackay. We had a good time with the water jets."  
  
"Please, call me Lydia." Mum looked at me a smiled. I think she was hinting at me, because at the moment, Lock seemed like the perfect son-in-law to her. "Lachlan's father is a lawyer for a big organisation that's based all over the world. Your father's managing their accounts for them in Australia."  
  
What'd I tell you?  
  
"So are starting at the school next week?" Mum asked Lachlan.  
  
Lock dabbed his mouth with a napkin. He had perfect table manners too. He'd already complimented at least twice on my mother's cooking and how she looked today. "Yes. In fact, we ran into some of Jen's friends in the park today."  
  
"Which ones?" Mum asked, although she probably already knew.  
  
"Laura and Frost," Lock said. Mum had long ago refrained from saying anything about Laura, but she was surprised as I was when I mentioned Frost.  
  
"Frost? Deacin Frost, Jen's boyfriend?"  
  
Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.  
  
I felt like banging my head against the table when Lock looked at me. I really did not want to see the expression on his face. I was just as star- crossed as Romeo and Juliet. Fate had it in for me.  
  
"Jen never told me that Frost was her boyfriend," Lock said, and his tone of amusement made me turn and look at him. He was grinning at me. I would have melted in my seat usually, but damn it, he was mocking me. They were all mocking me!  
  
"Well," she gave me a disapproving look, "Jen just told me yesterday herself."  
  
He kept grinning. "Well, he looks very respectable."  
  
Mum softened. "Do you really think so?" Obviously she trusted this almost complete stranger's opinion more than mine. Then again, I wasn't really going out with Frost, was I?  
  
"Oh yeah," Lock said a little too earnestly for my liking. "He was dressed in a black suit and a silk shirt."  
  
I coughed. Loudly. Oh, the shame! The shame! I heard him trying to muffle his laugh behind his napkin.  
  
"A black suit and a silk shirt!" Mum said. She turned to me with a worried look. "Is this Frost much more older than you? I don't want you going out with older men who could be taking advantage of you." If only.  
  
"Frost is Lock's age," I said, although I really didn't know. "His family is just rich, and they like for him to dress nicely." By this time, Lock was practically stuffing the napkin in his face to stop from laughing. I looked at him indignantly. "Besides," I said with a flick of my hair, "I think he looks good in a black suits and silk shirts."  
  
"He sounds like a pimp," Brian said, choosing the perfect time as always.  
  
"Brian," my Mum scolded, "I'm shocked." She turned to Lock's mother, whi hadn't said much. "I'm sorry Mrs. O' Malley, you'll have to excuse my son." Brian just smirked and continued eating. I kicked him sharply underneath the table, but he just smiled nastily at me. Sibling rivalry at its best.  
  
Now that I thought about it, it wasn't very likely that Lock's parents were his real parents. Probably Lachlan O ' Malley wasn't even his real name.  
  
After dinner and the crème caramel, the adults sat around the lounge room talking about politics and state of the world. Brian had gone back up to his room that was covered in Metallica posters, which the colour scheme was composed mainly of black; so Lock and I were alone the family room. He turned on the TV to a louder than usual volume.  
  
"You're new to this aren't you?" he asked. "Vampires, and all that?" They couldn't hear us over the noise of the TV. Good thinking on his part.  
  
"Found out yesterday. Brad was my boyfriend." I had been trying not to think of Brad. It either made me feel pissed off that I was being used, or pissed off that he was dead. Who was I going to take to the formal now?  
  
"Oh," he said. "Sorry."  
  
I shrugged. "What about you? They're not your real parents are they?"  
  
"No. They're just some human members of Circle Daybreak. They hardly know anything, they're just my cover."  
  
"Circle Daybreak takes humans?" I asked incredulously.  
  
"Well, yeah. How else is there going to be peace between Night World and humans?"  
  
Right. I remembered now. To quote Frost, "It's an organisation that promotes cross species relations" end quote.  
  
"So, um, what's your real name then?"  
  
Lock smiled, but didn't say anything. If he wasn't going to tell me that, he was hardly going to spill the beans about Frost and his relationship. Now that I thought about it, I could really imagine them as a gay couple. Of course, that'd be absolutely devastating to the female population everywhere.  
  
"So what are you? Are you human?" I asked, not knowing what to ask, or if this was a social faux pas.  
  
"As long as you don't see me in the morning," he said, and it took me a few seconds to realise it was a joke. "Actually, I'm a witch. As human as Night People come."  
  
He was a witch? But...  
  
"Aren't witches supposed to...um..."  
  
"Have warts, pointy noses and green skin? And fly around on broomsticks and go to Hogwarts?" He laughed. "We're more human than you expect."  
  
I blushed. "I wasn't trying to imply..." My sentence kind of trailed off because it was what I was trying to imply. Damn. "So you guys go to normal schools and stuff?" I said finally, although it wasn't really a question.  
  
"If you mean Night People, yes, we attend the same schools, we have the same jobs, we go to the same churches, etc, etc. If you want to survive, you have to understand that Night People are everywhere."  
  
"Yeah," I said. "Got that covered." Finding out that your boyfriend was a vampire was somehow really highlighted that point. Then I noticed that Lock was unbuttoning his shirt. "Um," I said, not really sure to tell him to stop or not.  
  
He only unbuttoned the top two buttons. I didn't know whether to be thankful or disappointed. He pulled out something that was attached to a long leather thong. It was some sort of stone. Lock placed it in my hand.  
  
"It'll keep you safe from people fiddling with your mind," he told me.  
  
"Fiddling with my mind?" I said, raising my voice before he hushed me.  
  
"Vampires can do that." I flashed back to Laura when I thought she was stoned. "This is amethyst-"  
  
"Like the type you buy in jewellery shops?" I asked, looking down on the purple stone. It carved like a stick of quartz and attached to a silver ring, which attached it to the thong. I ran my fingers over it and thought I could feel engraving on it.  
  
"Not quite," Lock said mildly. "The ones you buy at the store are pretty much useless if they're not cleansed properly, and you have to get the right ritual..." he trailed off when he saw me looking at him blankly. It sounded like the New Age crap that Laura and I had experimented in a while ago, during our 'spiritual' phase. "Don't worry about the technicalities," Lock said. "Just wear it."  
  
Unfortunately there wasn't a clasp, so I couldn't ask him to help me put it on. God damn it. Maybe I could pretend that I was extremely uncoordinated and couldn't get it on without help. Hmm, the price of embarrassing myself further for Lock getting close and personal. Okay, it wasn't as romantic as I would have wanted, but he would still have to invade my personal space. And now that I thought about it, I could get to invade his as well.  
  
I had just opened my mouth to ask him, when Brian walked in. Perfect timing.  
  
He nodded at Lock, and Lock nodded back. Stupid guy-code. Brian looked at me. We look nothing alike, except (apparently) our noses were very similar. Brian's hair was a shade or two lighter than mine, and he was tall and lanky compared to my short and unlankiness. I like to think that I have curves, okay? I have an oval shaped face - which is pleasant and soft (says Mum) - whereas Brian's face is all angular.  
  
I drew several portraits of Brian a while ago, and Laura had thought that they were of Johnny Depp. For the record, my brother only looks like a young Johnny Depp on drugs and that is only when his face is half in shadow. Did I mention that he was wearing torn jeans, and although today he was wearing a black Marilyn Manson t-shirt, usually he went around the house topless? Laura had gone through a stage where she thought he was hot. It was probably the worst disagreement we'd ever had since we'd started being friends.  
  
"Laura's on the phone," he said, and walked out. I probably didn't hear the phone in the hallway because of the TV.  
  
Lock looked at me and I shrugged. "I'd better take it," I said.  
  
~**~  
  
"Laura?"  
  
"Okay, I just heard something completely amazing. You know Janie who was with Brad when he, um, came to his untimely end?"  
  
"Yeah, what about her?"  
  
"I just came off the phone with Jessie," Laura was a dreadful gossip, not to mention her mother, "and Jessie's friends with Janie's next door neighbour's daughter, Diane, and apparently Janie came home late, saying that she'd waited all night, and her 'date' - she didn't say who - never showed up."  
  
I didn't say anything, but I clutched the amethyst that Lock gave me. Frost was only half-vampire, so what could a full vampire do?  
  
"Jen, you there?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm listening, I'm listening. Lock and his parents are kind of still here, so I'll talk to you later, okay?"  
  
Laura was too excited to sense my anxiety. "Oooh, Lock. Sure, I'll leave you two alone to have fun then," she said, and hung up the phone.  
  
I stood motionless in the hallway. 


End file.
